Sent from God – Isaiah's call

by Art Katz

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.

Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.  And one cried unto another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.”

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven.”

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I; send me.”

And He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.’  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they sea with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

Then said I, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.  And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof” (Isaiah 6:1-13)

Too many of us have been guilty of lightly dismissing this account as an unimportant mystic vision of a God who is in some kind of hyper-state of glory.  Why then did it affect the prophet so radically?  My own suggestion is that the prophet saw the King in the greatest moment of His majesty.  In other words, God chose to express His deepest essence and being in a moment of time in the life of Isaiah, and that anyone who would contemplate that moment rightly will be altogether devastated and undone.  With that in mind, I am led to believe that Isaiah saw the crucifixion of the King, because nothing reveals the majesty of God more than in the depth of His suffering, experienced and borne for us as atonement!  You may ask how Isaiah could have seen the crucifixion of Jesus six or seven centuries before the actual event.  Let us not forget that the Lord was “slain from before the foundations of the earth were laid.” 

This is not just a chance episode in the life of the prophet; it is the unfolding of a remarkable pattern; a sequence of events by which the prophet, who already had a ministry, and was already cautioning and warning the nation of its sin from the very first chapter of his book, now enters a new dimension.  His subsequent ministry as one sent was no longer merely to warn or to caution, but to judge.  His word would now constitute judgment: Israel will not hear, will not see, and their hearts will be dulled because the prophet has spoken to them in a new depth of urgency, weight and authority as one sent.

How many of us have sufficiently dwelt on the word sent as we ought?  Do we understand the significance of the difference between one who went and the one who is sent?  However well-meaning it might be, is not most of our Christian activity self-initiated or committee determined?  Do we know, and I mean really know, what it is to be sent from the One who is enthroned? 

How many of us have a self-motivated itch to go and to do, and to cut a swathe for ourselves and our ministry?  How many sendings are there of the kind that initiated the early history of the church?  Those that were sent turned the world upside-down.  Do we sufficiently honor and esteem the phenomenon of sending?  Do we understand the difference between the consequences of the work that results from one sent in comparison to the work of one who is self-initiated in his going?  Are we even assured that the world needs to be turned upside-down?  Or do we see the world as needing merely to be modified and have some of its excesses reduced?  Do we see the world as being evil?  Are we chafed by its immorality?  

Everything hinges upon seeing the Lord as the Lord.  My greatest grief over the condition of the church, its leadership and its prominent ministers is that they do not know God as God to any significant degree; they do not know Him as He in fact is.  Without this knowledge of God, we are condemned to a hollow counterfeit much more in harmony with our own approving ambition and intentions.  Consequently, there is no fear of God, and we will find ourselves taking liberties and initiating conduct that was not sent from heaven.  Everything rests on seeing the Lord high and lifted up and enthroned in His majestic glory, but brought to perfection in the moment of His most excruciating suffering at Calvary.  That is what this prophet saw, and he cried out “I am undone!  I am a man of unclean lips!”

EXCHANGED LIFE by Major W. Ian Thomas

Christian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life" not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).

This is all part of our Gospel - it is not the Gospel plus! We must not get our terminology wrong. To divorce the behavior of the Christian from the Gospel is entirely false and is not true to the Word of God, yet all too often such is the characteristic of gospel preaching.

I would like to explore with you what is the true spiritual content of our Gospel ­ not just heaven one day, but Christ right now! Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption ­ this is the Gospel! To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce "Evan-jellyfish" ­ folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith docs not "behave!"

Do you remember what James says in his epistle? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (chapter 2:26). The "spirit" there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing ­ and folk will bury you! In other words, a living body breathes, and a living faith breathes, and a living faith breaths with divine action. A living faith breathes with the activity of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent."

That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls "good works," as opposed to "dead works."

"Good works" are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ - - whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Romans 12: 1,2).

It is only the life of the Lord Jesus -- His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God.

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The Person of the Holy Spirit -Eli Brayley

 The Person of the Holy Spirit

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" - Amos 3:3


Many Christians today haven't a clue who the Holy Spirit is. This is simply because they have never been introduced. I am not suggesting they have never come in contact with the Holy Spirit, or else they would surely not be Christians at all! But, just as you have never met the maker and designer of the shirt you wear, so many believers, though having come to Christ by the working of the Spirit of God, have never had a personal aquaintance. It is my goal in this article to arrange a meeting in the most simplest way.

The first thing to understand is the fact that just as you had need to receive the Son of God, so you have need to receive the Spirit of God. "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" A common reason for having not received is their reply: "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." (Acts 19:2) Believers as they were, they had experienced the working of the Spirit in the their lives but not the Worker Himself.


WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT

Vision For the Lost - William Booth

READ HERE

The Spirit

(David Harsha, "The Savior's Ascension")


The Spirit is given to supply the Savior's absence,
and to apply to our souls the redemption finished
on Calvary. It is His blessed work to glorify Jesus;
to testify of Him.

Through His power we are renewed; sanctified;
filled 'with all joy and peace in believing,' and
'abound in hope' of a blissful immortality.

The Spirit reveals the Savior to our souls in a
manner that renders Him exceedingly precious
in our estimation. He shows us....
  His excellence;
  the perfections of His divine nature, as the
    brightness of the Father's glory;
  His power, as the Creator of all things;
  His wisdom;
  His immutability;
  His eternity.

The Spirit exhibits to us....
  the amazing love of Jesus to sinners;
  the wonders of His incarnation;
  the amiableness of His life on earth;
  the spotless purity of His character;
  the unparalleled sufferings of His life;
  the fruits of His death, resurrection;
    ascension, and intercession.

The Spirit shows us His suitableness to our needs
as sinners; points us to Calvary, and whispers in
our ears the cheering truth, that we have redemption
through the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins.

The Spirit comforts us amid all the tribulations of
earth, by assuring us that our trials are but light and
momentary, by perfecting His strength in our weakness,
by bringing to our remembrance the many precious
words of the Lord Jesus, by communicating to us
the things of God, by lifting our hearts above the
world, and by pointing us to a home of rest and
glory beyond the skies; where tribulation, and
anguish, and death, never come.

Yes, by His divine power thus operating on our minds,
He enables us to look far beyond the present; to direct
faith's far reaching eye to our Father's house, and the
fountains of immortal life, flowing through those 'sweet
fields beyond the swelling flood,' the sight of which
makes us long to be there, that we may see Jesus as
He is, and taste His goodness on the shores of the
promised land.

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A Right Thing Done in a Wrong Way

By T. Austin-Sparks

  
  (1 Chronicles 13-15)


      The inclusion of this episode in the Chronicles of Israel has evidently a very definite purpose; it conveys a message which the "Israel of God" - the Church - has been, and still is, all too slow to take account of.


      Precisely, it is this. A right thing done in a wrong way can be as disastrous as either not doing it at all or even doing a wrong thing. It says beyond question that God is as jealous and particular about how a thing is done as He is about having it done at all. Let us look carefully at this tragedy.


      The Credit Side


      On the credit and good side we have


      1. The right object. There was no question whatever that the matter in hand was something right and that God wanted to be done. Eventually, when it was done in the right way, He greatly blessed it. That the homeless Ark of the Testimony should be brought a real stage nearer to its final resting-place was all in accord with the mind of God. It was really destined to have its full and final place as the focal-point of the life of the redeemed nation in Jerusalem, and so reach the end of that disorder resultant, so largely, from the man-made regime of Saul (verse 3).


      2. It was contemplated, discussed, and decided upon with reference and deference to the will of God (verse 2). That will was desired and honoured.


      3. Although the initiative and inspiration came from one man, it was a corporate decision, taken in conference and fellowship. There was no independent act of an individual (verses 2, 5).


      4. There was no lack of zeal, enthusiasm, and energy. It says that they did it "with all their might" (verse 8).


      5. The motive, good intention, sincerity, and devotion were unquestionable.


      This makes a fairly good total on the credit side: right object; the will of God desired; unity and fellowship in decision; whole-hearted zeal in committal; rightness of motive and intention. What more could be required? Are these not the things which characterize most enterprises for God? There is certainly nothing wrong with them in themselves, and no condemnation attaches to any one of those points. What more could be called for?


      And in the case under consideration, all seemed to be going well and prospering for a time. They were 'making merry before the Lord with all their might, with songs, and lyres, and harps, and tambourines, and cymbals, and trumpets' (verse 8). The seeming success up to a certain point led them to assume that the Lord was with them and that His acceptance was assured. But - Oh, woeful But! - something happened. In itself it was a simple thing and not an extraordinary happening. It was only that "the oxen stumbled". Upon that stumble in the threshing-floor of Chidon the entire scene changed. An apparently simple incident uncovered a whole lot of wrong in principle. It was well-intentioned on the part of Uzza, prompted by real concern for the Ark and its safety; a real interest in the success of the whole undertaking and enterprise. All that he did was to "put forth his hand to hold the Ark" (verse 9). It was all so natural, so spontaneous, so well-meant, so free from vice and evil desire. But "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him... and he died there... before God" (verse 10).


      Well, we may not like it, and we may feel bad about it. That is how David felt. He was angry (verse 11). He was afraid of God (verse 12), and he said, "How can I bring up the Ark of God to me?" Looked at naturally there appears to be very good reason for being offended with the Lord; for saying, 'evidently the Lord does not want us, or our service; He does not care for all our well-meaning efforts to do what we were convinced was His will and would please Him. We had better give it up!' So David felt and acted accordingly, and the whole project came to a standstill.

Nothing More to Say

By Theodore Epp

     
Job 40:1-5


      Job had contended with God. He had argued against God's dealing with him, which was the root of his problem. He, the creature, had sat in judgment against God, the Creator. He had even accused God of doing the wrong thing.


      Now God had spoken to Job and made His presence known. From nature He had emphasized very obvious lessons so that Job could not fail to catch the moral principles involved. No wonder Job replied that he was vile.


      How could Job really answer God after this revelation of God's care for His creatures? Job realized how contemptible he had been in speaking as he did of the Lord. He had thought the Lord cruel and unjust; in reality God had shown His love to Job. Job decided all he could do was put his hand on his mouth, say nothing more and just listen to God.
      How do we face times of suffering? Do we wonder after a long period of testing if God really cares? We seek for love and care, and God in His grace is ready and willing to love us and care for us; but above all we must remember that God has permitted this testing and has a purpose in it. God is both sovereign and righteous; therefore, He always does what is right.


      When a believer does wrong, he may suffer for the wrong done. On the other hand, much suffering in the life of a believer is for discipline, not punishment. Through such suffering God molds him into the image of His Son (see Rom. 8:28,29).

      "Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Rom. 3:19).

http://articles.ochristian.com/article5805.shtml